Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Johnny Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, mix together the corn meal, brown sugar, flour, egg, salt, sour milk, and baking soda.
If you prefer, you can substitute sour milk and baking soda with sweet milk and baking powder.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake until it begins to brown, then baste with melted butter using a rag tied to a stick.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn meal
- Provides the main body and the grainy, crumbly texture of the bread.
- Flour
- Adds structure so the batter holds together as it bakes.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps set the crumb as it bakes.
- Sour milk
- Adds moisture and acidity, which tenderizes the crumb and reacts with the soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in sour milk to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the top brown during baking.
The step that matters
Mixing the batter with baking soda and sour milk. Baking soda reacts with the acid in sour milk as soon as they meet, releasing gas that lifts the batter. Once mixed, the batter should go into the oven without delay so the bubbles are not lost before the structure sets.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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